A Conversation with Joanna Scott

Sunday, November 15

Penn Museum

Armand De Potter was a self-made man: an immigrant who became a lecturer, tour operator, and antiquities dealer. But some regarded him as a charlatan, and many of the objects he exhibited at the Penn Museum (1898-1908) turned out to be forgeries. When he disappeared off the coast of Greece in 1905, his family was left with a trunkful of trinkets, a mountain of debts, and an unsolved mystery. In her most recent book, acclaimed novelist Joanna Scott attempts to reconstruct the final days of her great-grandfather, the notorious Armand De Potter.
 

Join Joanna Scott, who will read from her book and discuss the life of De Potter, the Penn Museum, and the early days of collecting with Penn professors Kaja Silverman and Robert Ousterhout. 
 

Free and open to the public.
 

This event is co-sponsored by the Mellon Foundation, the History of Art Department, The Center for Ancient Studies, the English Department, and the Penn Museum.